Mentoring Letter 32

8/4/2019 Mentoring Letter 32

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MENTORING LETTER 32

pamsheppard.com

How to Try the

Spirits

Part 4

Assumptions, Confirmation, &Excuses

The enemy really designs his deception based upon hisknowledge of us. The secret desires of our hearts andour assumptions provide religious demons with both theblueprint and the building blocks of the grand deceptionthat fuels the enemy's overall plan. The plan begins as akind of conspiracy theory which answers the questions ,"what makes him or her tick? And if I do THIS, then willhe or she do THAT?" What the religious demon has to do

is to find a way to "guide our steps." There is no greaterthrill than for a religious demon to manipulate and controla child of God and cause that person to become both hisprey and his captive.

So I believe that we overcome by first knowing ourselves.When you know yourself better than the enemy knows

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"How To Try


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YOU, then you are on your way to victory. For example, ifyou are an achiever, your desire to succeed CAN BE a key

contact point on the blueprint and the religious demon willbegin to "build the plan."

In Part 3, I mentioned the movie "the Devil's Advocate."

An advocate is a lawyer, and Keanu Reeves, "theadvocate" was a lawyer in the movie, as was the devil,

played by Al Pacino. The devil's plan to guide the stepsof his advocate began with setting Reeves up to winevery case as a defense attorney. By doing so, Pacino

said to himself, if I cause Reeves to win every case,will he to literally do "anything" to win when it appearsthat he may lose his first case? Will he neglect a sickwife? Will he ignore his mother's warnings? Will he evencheat to win? Will he hide evidence?

In the movie, the devil had been watching the advocate

from the time he was born, and he wanted to see if heknew Reeves better than the advocate knew himself.Just in case the advocate had any surprises in his backpocket, the devil had a back up plan. His first plan wasto cause Reeves to risk everything in order NOT TO LOSEA CASE. And when that didn't work, Pacino's final planwas even better. What was the foundation of the entire

devil's conspiracy? It was the vanity of the advocaterelative to his desire to always succeed and excel.

Vanity was the advocate's Achilles heal. Where Reeveswent wrong was in his assumptions. He assumed that

he was winning each and every case because of hisskill, when in reality, the devil was helping him towin.

So point number one in trying the spirits is this: Whenyou go wrong in your assumptions, you have givenplace to the devil.

What is an assumption? An assumption is taking forgranted that a particular supposition, fact or circumstance

is true. It is prematurely accepting as truth, what ismerely an hypothesis or a guess. For example, when I

reflect upon my very first assumption as a Christian, I"assumed" that because I had power in my hands to heal,that:

1. the healing power was from God;2. that God was calling me to minister healing.

It took about 25 years for me to find out that "the healing

the Spirits,click the

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power that I had was NOT from God." So logicallyspeaking, if the the power was not from God, and if it was

not from ME, then it must have come from the enemy. Ifthe power came from the enemy, then what was hisagenda in giving me the power?

When I "tried the spirits" on this matter, I realized that Ihad first manifested healing power while I was a new age

occultist. When I became a Christian and I saw in thebible that Jesus is a Healer, I just "assumed" that since Iwas now "born again," I could simply transition occult

healing into my Christian work for God. WRONG!!! Alongthis same train of thought, we "assume" that becausewhat we are doing is similar to what the early apostlesdid, that we are doing "the same thing." It ain'tnecessarily so.

With every Christian, the enemy assigned to you is going

to "set you up" to be disappointed in God, so thateventually, you will be so frustrated with failure, that youwill throw your spiritual hands up in the air and declare,"I'm done with this." This was the intent of the healingpower I operated in. The religious devil's motive was tofrustrate me when those I laid hands on did not "keep"their healing. This works also in the opposite direction. If

the sick keeps the healing, then "the healer" will assumethat he is operating off of divine power, when he is not.Consequently, the devil remains in control and can

exercise authority in the healer's life whenever hesees fit.

Assumptions are constantly made by Christians whobelieve that "the 3 witnesses rule" is an indication that asign, wonder, message or circumstance is "a

confirmation" from God.

Confirmation! Its a twelve letter dirty word that

covers a wide field of consideration. In fact, Satanand his crew get many chuckles out of this one.

There are so many varieties of "confirmations" that it ishard to present one representative example, so I'll have

to make one up. You had a dream that you should moveto Georgia. Or perhaps someone from your churchprophesied over you---"God has called you to minister inGeorgia." The same day, you heard Ray Charles sing,"Georgia on my mind." Then someone called you on thetelephone from Georgia, but it was a wrong number. Inthe afternoon, a friend stopped by and gave you somepeaches. Georgia peaches.


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"So there it is" you say to yourself. I got 3 signs or

witnesses that provide "confirmation" to my dream orprophetic word. God wants me to move to Georgia.

I use such a ridiculous example to highlight what foolish

believers do constantly. The "confirmation" thing isnothing but an assumption, not based on fact, not

based on truth. When God sends a message, He doesnot have to confirm it. He may, or He may not. Here is aninstance in my life where God supernaturally "showed and

proved."

I had recently divorced my last husband because his drugaddiction became unbearable. However, I still loved himvery much so I was vulnerable to him if he attempted toreconcile. I thought, "since he had not cheated onme since we were married, perhaps I should not have

divorced him."

One morning, I dreamt I saw a mudslide. My husbandjumped into it. When he got up, a woman was hiddenunderneath him---in the mud.

As I lay there, considering the meaning of the dream, the

phone rang. It was my ex. He wanted to reconcile. Ilistened but I was quiet, remembering the dream I hadjust 5 minutes before the call.

I got up out of my bed, and walked into a room that had

once been his den. Laying in the middle of the floor, in aroom that I had cleaned several times was an applicationfor credit, made out by my ex. What I noticed was thathe used a different address and phone number on the

application. So I dialed the number. A woman answered.I asked "Can I speak to Rich?" She replied, "He is nothere right now. Who is this?" I said "his wife.."

The woman went berserk. She screamed "you are not hiswife. You have divorced him. I have been his woman for

the last 3 years. So you need to go about your businessand leave him alone because Rich is MINE!!!"

So when I try the spirits, this was rather supernatural. Itall occurred within the space of 20 minutes. Somethingappeared on my floor that was not there for twomonths!!!! I dreamed about the hidden woman, "underthe mud" of my ex's secret life 5 minutes before his call.

Was this the devil trying to get me to go over there and


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shoot somebody and end up in jail? For I also had heraddress.

Not THIS time! lol. Both God and the devil know that Iam too wise and too much in control of my emotions to

fall for THAT one. The Lord simply provided me with the

hidden information that I needed to stop punishing myselffor divorcing an adulterer and for NOT TAKING HIM

BACK!!!! I had every right to divorce him.

At times, God WILL confirm. When he does, it will not be

an assumption.

IT WILL BE FACT AND TRUTH THAT SETS YOU FREE.

Take it from one who knows. Most confirmation comesfrom the devil.

Here is another personal experience. I may have usedthis real life example before, but it bares repeatingbecause it clarifies my point. In 1979, I had a dreamthat I saw a minister standing on my church's steps, witha robe across his arm. He looked at me and said, "Girl,I'm gonna marry You!" In the dream, he was wearing a

navy blue suit purchased from Sears and a pair of navyblue swede shoes.

Two weeks later, on a Sunday morning, "a force" wastrying to stop me from going to church. I "assumed" it

was the devil. So I persevered and went out of the door,walking to church. Looking back today, I realize that itwas God who tried to stop me from going, or at least an

angel sent from God.

When I arrived, the new visiting pastor was at the church,robed and wearing a navy blue suit and blue swedeshoes. I was sitting in the congregation and he set hiseyes on me from the pulpit chair. Later that evening, mypastor called, claiming that the visiting pastor wanted tomeet me. When we met he said "Girl, I'm gonna marryyou cause you sooooo pretty!" I asked, where did you buyyour suit? He said "Sears and Roebuck."

Plenty of confirmation here!. Without the dream and all ofthis "confirmation", I would never have given this man asecond glance. He was simply not my type. So becauseof all of this "confirmation," I assumed "this must be

God." To make a long story short, it was not. Thisminister was one of the worst men to ever enter into my


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life. He was a Satanic setup for things that could haveliterally "taken me down and out!."

So when you have circumstances occur that are similar,with all kinds of confirmation, a try the spirits tip is this---

- ,

Run like a bat let out of hell. Its the devil.

The excuses that we make to explain why we findourselves under demonic attack are another form of anassumption. My meaning is better explained byillustration. I founded a church with a name that Idiscovered more than a decade later, was given to me bya religious demon. My kind of vanity was that I"assumed" that because the Denomination I was ordainedin was defiled, that my ministry was clean. You need to

know that just because your opposition may be wrong,that doesn't make you RIGHT!!! I was unaware of thistruth, so I "assumed" that the church that I foundedwas superior to any of the churches in the Denomination.

So when my church and I came under a persistent attach

from all sides, I assumed, "we must be doing great thingsand the devil is angry." So the attack caused someonewith a personality type like mine to brace myself and hold

on to my church and ministry with an even stronger grip.Little did I know that "this was the motive for the attack--

-that I would hold on to what God wanted me to letgo of, as long as I assumed that I was doing God aservice.

Usually when demons bombard you with frequentattacks, they are already in control. They simply wantyou to assume that you have a fighting chance. Accordingto Jessie Penn Lewis, "They attack a person because theyare in possession, but make him think and believe it to bean indirect attack, ie. through another person. The blameis placed on the man himself or someone else, or onanything but the true cause, so that the intruder may not

be discovered and expelled. It is therefore important thatall 'excuses' should be examined, i.e., the 'reasons' forsuch and such an unexplainable manifestation.

The causes should always be gone into, for by believing awrong interpretation of the manifestation, more ground is

given to the lying spirits. The believer may be refusingground on the one hand, and giving new ground on theother, unless he examines all the suggestions which come


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to his mind concerning his condition." (War on the Saints,pg. 176)

This is what the enemy is looking for when he takesadvantage of the assumptions you make. He is looking

for "new ground" to continue to deceive and control you.

Those who are most vulnerable are those who love theirministry more than they love Jesus Himself. Anyone who

has a ministry should not assume that it was God whogave it to you. So go back to what was going on in yourlife when you assumed that God called you into ministry.

Since I have "been there and done that," it is easy for meto recognize those who are themselves possessed by aministry that they assume God gave to them. I canrecognize an obsessed worker, one who is consumed witheither revival, deliverance, setting captives free, healing,even saving souls, which no one does but God.

Those who are obsessed by "their" ministries are blind totheir condition. Certainly, helping others, giving of yourtime, teaching and preaching, and un-deceiving thedeceived are all rightful things. Nevertheless, very often,the enemy uses ministry as a distraction to the worker'sown need of deliverance from the enemy's deception.

If you put yourself into the hands of workers like these,you will be subject to both their confusion and

their contraditions. Such workers will seem strong, yetthey are weak, loving but they are really stoical and

distant. Why? Because they are un-trusting and afraidof every dark shadow. Remember. The Lord's yoke iseasy and His burden is light. Anytime you assume thatGod can't do His work without YOU, you are in the

devil's hands.

Sheppard's Counseling and Publishing Center, PO Box 356, East Greenbush NY, NY 12061 5184775759

Mentoring Letter 32

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